British Motor Museum Volunteers

Rover 1S/60 Gas Turbine Unit

Following our successful renovation of the MGA Twin Cam it
was announced, after much speculation and debate, that our next project would
be the full restoration of a 1960 Standard Ensign.

However, although the
car was ready and waiting, we’d been asked to renovate a Rover gas turbine
instructional unit first. The unit was designed to train students at technical
colleges and universities. Basically it’s a Rover 1S/60 gas turbine unit
mounted on a frame, to which a variety of instruments can be connected to
demonstrate to students the operation of a gas turbine.

Something different –
Rover Gas Turbine Instructional Unit

Whilst the engine was never likely to run in anger again our
brief was to fully service it as well as renovate all the attached components
of the complete unit. For this task we were fortunate enough to have an old
spare engine available from which we could take any replacement parts.

The job of dismantling the unit was quite time consuming as
there were lots of nuts and bolts to undo, with many difficult to access. Also
there were large rubber seals between the flanges of each section of ducting
which were effectively gluing the parts together.

Dismantling underway

The renovation and
repair of the connector panel and adjoining pipes was challenging

The wiring and piping to the engine was very complex and not
something most of us were familiar with. However, once again our policy of
taking lots of photographs of each item before and after dismantling helped us
greatly.

All the paintwork was undertaken by brush or aerosol with
hours spent flatting and repainting in order to get a top quality finish. The
main engine unit itself was dirty with early signs of surface corrosion or
oxidisation, but mechanically it was in good order. Cleaning up the alloy
castings was achieved with hours of elbow grease and thinners.

For such a complex and unfamiliar project it was reassembled
and finished within a six week period. The unit is now on permanent display in
the ground floor Rotunda at the Heritage Motor Centre.